The Lightroom Queenhttps://www.lightroomqueen.com
Tips, Tutorials & Troubleshooting for Adobe Photoshop LightroomThu, 08 Dec 2016 16:20:05 +0000en-UShourly15819138https://www.lightroomqueen.com/whats-new-lightroom-cc-2015-8-6-8/What’s New in Lightroom CC 2015.8 / 6.8?http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/240627578/0/lightroomqueen~Whats-New-in-Lightroom-CC/
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/240627578/0/lightroomqueen~Whats-New-in-Lightroom-CC/#respondMon, 05 Dec 2016 16:10:13 +0000https://www.lightroomqueen.com/?p=18189Lightroom CC 2015.8 and Lightroom 6.8 have been released today, and there are some great improvements, as well as the normal camera/lens support and bug fixes for everyone. (For the update links, skip to the end of the post.) So what’s new? Reference View (CC only) If you’ve ever wished for a Compare view in the Develop module, you’ll love this… Click to continue

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Lightroom CC 2015.8 and Lightroom 6.8 have been released today, and there are some great improvements, as well as the normal camera/lens support and bug fixes for everyone. (For the update links, skip to the end of the post.)

So what’s new?

Reference View (CC only)

If you’ve ever wished for a Compare view in the Develop module, you’ll love this new Reference View feature. Before I tell you HOW to use it, let’s briefly consider a few reasons you might WANT to use it:

Matching photos shot at same time using different cameras.

Trying to match a raw file to its in-camera jpeg.

Trying to match photos that will be displayed together, perhaps on the wall or in an album.

You may have previously used Locked Secondary Window for the same purpose, but this is more useful if you’re on a single monitor.

To enable Reference view:

Click the R/A button in the Develop module toolbar or use the shortcut Shift-R.

Drag and drop the reference photo onto the left pane or right-click on thumbnail in Grid view/Filmstrip and select Set as Reference Photo.

Go ahead and edit the active photo as you normally would.

To switch back to normal single image view, click the Loupe icon in the toolbar or press D.

The reference photo disappears when you switch modules, but if you lock the lock icon, it remains selected until you quit Lightroom. The RGB values also show under the Histogram for both the reference (left) and active (right) photo.

Performance Improvements

The developers have been hard at work making “under the hood” improvements for performance including:

Background tasks such as preview building are temporarily paused while you’re working in Develop to improve responsiveness.

Backup to a NAS is now faster.

File/folder move performance has been improved, especially on Windows.

Sync Catalog Disaster Recovery (CC only)

If you’ve ever lost your main Sync catalog, you’ll have discovered that Lightroom 2015.7 or earlier asks you to delete everything from the cloud and start syncing from scratch. This is a problem if you have photos or metadata that haven’t yet synced down to your desktop catalog.

Lightroom 2015.8 allows you to create a new catalog and switch to syncing the empty catalog. This downloads the cloud data to your computer. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s good to see some progress in this area. These are the main warnings:

It only manages to link photos with the originals if they haven’t moved since they were first synced. If it can’t match up photos with their originals, “finding missing photos” can be a very long job.

It can’t link up with an existing catalog, so if you have backups but they’re out of date, you’re out of luck. You’d have to let it sync to an empty catalog and then attempt to merge the catalogs. Messy!

Only specific metadata is sent to the cloud, and the originals are not synced from the desktop.

Frequent catalog backups are still essential. This new rescue option is still a last-resort.

Other improvements include:

In the Metadata Filters and Smart Collections, you can now filter for images with snapshots. (CC only.)

You can now right-click on a Collection Set and choose Export as Collection Set as a Catalog, rather than having to select the individual collections.

Catalogs larger than 4GB are now zipped again, but they’re too big for macOS to unzip natively, so you’ll need 7-zip or StuffItExpander if you need to restore a backup.

Fixed – Lightroom would show an error dialog when attempting to open an image in Photoshop. Please note that this only occurred on Windows and only when selecting “Open in Photoshop” as a Post­Processing item in the Export dialog.

How do I update?

To update, go to Help menu > Updates or click the Update button in the CC app. The update servers take a while to push the updates around the world, to avoid crashing the servers, but if you’re in a hurry to update, here are the direct links to the patches: Windows – Mac

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http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/240627578/0/lightroomqueen~Whats-New-in-Lightroom-CC/feed/018189https://www.lightroomqueen.com/one-or-multiple-catalogs/Should you have one catalog or multiple catalogs?http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/238882144/0/lightroomqueen~Should-you-have-one-catalog-or-multiple-catalogs/
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/238882144/0/lightroomqueen~Should-you-have-one-catalog-or-multiple-catalogs/#commentsMon, 05 Dec 2016 16:00:38 +0000https://www.lightroomqueen.com/?p=18052Since version 1.1, Lightroom has been able to create and switch between multiple catalogs, but the question is, just because you can, should you? There is no ‘right’ number of catalogs. As with the rest of your Lightroom workflow, it depends on how you work. So should you use a single main working catalog*, or… Click to continue

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Since version 1.1, Lightroom has been able to create and switch between multiple catalogs, but the question is, just because you can, should you?

There is no ‘right’ number of catalogs. As with the rest of your Lightroom workflow, it depends on how you work. So should you use a single main working catalog*, or should you split your photos into multiple catalogs? Let’s consider the pros and cons…

Why is a single catalog the best choice for most photographers?

The whole point of a DAM (Digital Asset Management) system like Lightroom is being able to easily search through them and find specific photos, but you can’t search across multiple catalogs (e.g., to find the best photos from multiple shoots) without opening each catalog in turn.

It’s a pain to keep switching catalogs, especially since you can’t switch catalogs while a process is running (e.g., if you’re running an export in one catalog, you have to wait for it to complete before switching to another catalog).

Mobile sync only works with one catalog.

Why do some people recommend multiple catalogs?

Some people say that small catalogs are faster than big catalogs, and this is true in some circumstances:

Smaller catalogs are faster to open and back up than very large catalogs – but how many times a day do you need to open and back up?

Big catalogs can be slow to search, if you’re searching the whole catalog – but it’s still faster than opening multiple catalogs in turn to search through each one.

We should define big/small catalogs – even 50,000 photos counts as a small catalog… 4 million is big!

As long as the catalog’s optimized regularly and stored on a fast drive, viewing and working in individual folders/collections should be almost the same speed regardless of catalog size.

Some people encourage multiple catalogs on the basis that you’ll have less to lose if your catalog becomes corrupted – but simply backing up the catalog regularly works just as well.

Some people say it’s easier to organize photos by topic in separate catalogs, perhaps separating their bird photography from wildlife. We’ll consider alternatives that may be simpler, later in this post.

For most amateur photographers, the benefits of a single master catalog massively outweigh the disadvantages. Professional photographers may need to weigh the pros and cons a little more carefully and decide what’s right for their workflow.

Who should consider multiple master catalogs?

You want to separate “Work” shoots from “Home” (or “His” and “Hers”) and there’s no overlap.

You have multiple employees who need to be working in Lightroom at the same time, and the web interface doesn’t offer the features that the “other” people need.

You shoot for other people and it’s essential that their photos don’t mix (e.g., The Smith baby shoot doesn’t get accidentally dropped in the Jones folder, and Mr Smith doesn’t accidentally see Mrs Jones makeover shoot.)

How do you differentiate between shoots in a single catalog?

If your reason for multiple catalogs is simply wanting to separate work from home, or His and Hers, then consider the ways you can do so in a single catalog. For example, your Folders, Collections and Keywords panel may have separate hierarchies for each style:

This way, you still have all of the benefits of a single catalog, but with the ability to quickly and easily view and search specific photos.

What if there’s more of an overlap? Perhaps some of your holiday landscapes are used in work brochures. Then leave all of the photos in a single dated folder structure and just use ‘virtual’ divisions, using Collections and metadata filters (based on Keywords, or even Copyright metadata) to differentiate.

If you do decide to use multiple catalogs, there are some danger areas to look out for:

Be careful that the same photos don’t end up in multiple catalogs, as this causes no end of confusion (for example, they may be edited in one catalog but not the other, have different keywords in different catalogs, or when renamed/moved in one catalog they get marked as missing in the other, etc.)

Be careful that the photos don’t end up in the “wrong” catalog, as transferring them is a pain.

Be careful that you don’t completely miss importing some photos.

Watch out for different keyword spellings and hierarchies, especially if you’re going to merge catalogs later.

If you decide you need multiple catalogs, there are also a few questions to ask yourself:

How are you going to divide the catalogs?

By client (all of the shoots for the Jones family – engagement, wedding, baby, family)

By job (the Jones baby shoot)

By date (2016)

How will you know which catalog to open to find a specific photo? For example, it would be easy to remember that Kate & John’s wedding photo would be in Kate & John’s catalog or in the 2016 Weddings catalog, but it’s not so simple to remember whether a photo of a friend would be in the 2014, 2015 or 2016 catalog.

Do you ever need to search through all of your photos to find a specific photo, or group together your best shots for your portfolio? If so, you may choose the best of both worlds: keep your current photos in a small working catalog (or a catalog per job), and then use Import from Catalog to transfer them into a large searchable archive catalog when completed.

Where will you store the catalogs? Will you keep all of the catalogs together in a single folder, or keep the catalog in the same folder as the photos?

How will you make sure they’re backed up regularly?

How are you going to make sure there’s no crossover, with the same photos appearing in more than one catalog?

Where are you going to put the photos that don’t fit into the categories you’ve selected?

How will you make sure your keyword lists are consistent in all of your catalogs?

As a general rule, use as few catalogs as you can. For most photographers, that’s a single catalog, but if you need additional catalogs, think it through carefully before you act. Multiple catalogs can work, but they also add a degree of complexity that’s unnecessary for most photographers.

If you already have multiple catalogs and you want to figure out which ones you can delete, or how to merge them into a single catalog, don’t worry – we’ll come back to tidying up existing catalogs later in the series. If you want to get started now, see pages 522-524 in my Lightroom CC/6 book.

In the next post in the series, where should you store your photos?

* In this post, we’re not referring to temporary catalogs which are created for a purpose, for example, to take a subset of photos to another machine before later merging them back in, but more specifically, your main working or master catalog.

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http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/238882144/0/lightroomqueen~Should-you-have-one-catalog-or-multiple-catalogs/feed/618052https://www.lightroomqueen.com/hacked-are-you-safe/Hacked – are you safe?http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237344416/0/lightroomqueen~Hacked-are-you-safe/
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237344416/0/lightroomqueen~Hacked-are-you-safe/#commentsFri, 02 Dec 2016 16:19:43 +0000https://www.lightroomqueen.com/?p=18090I understand why big companies don’t like to share that their websites have been hacked. It would be far easier to brush it under the carpet. But if you’ve been following me for some time, you know that I’m always open and honest with you, and this is no exception… What happened? In the early hours of Tuesday… Click to continue

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I understand why big companies don’t like to share that their websites have been hacked. It would be far easier to brush it under the carpet. But if you’ve been following me for some time, you know that I’m always open and honest with you, and this is no exception…

What happened?

In the early hours of Tuesday morning (UK time), my website was hacked. Thanks to one of my security plug-ins, and an email from a reader (thank you Jenny!), I was quickly alerted and I immediately took the site offline to investigate. The site remained down until I was sure it had been fully checked and cleaned by security experts, even though it was during a busy sale period.

During the downtime, I posted updates on social media and personally responded to all of the emails flooding my inbox. As soon as the site was live again, I emailed my entire mailing list (which is run on Mailchimp’s secure server) to explain what had happened. I’m sorry if this worried you, but it was important to check you were safe.

The hacker had replaced the links behind two of the purchase buttons on a book purchase page with links to his own PayPal account. He used PayPal’s own secure servers, so he didn’t have access to any financial details, but he received the payments for the orders. A clever way of “earning” some extra cash! A total of 15 people were affected before I discovered the issue and shut down the site, and I’ve contacted them all personally.

Thank you for your support

It’s always worrying to hear that a site you frequent has been hacked. I’m sorry that this has happened and I’m doing everything in my power to ensure that it’s never repeated.

It’s been an incredibly stressful few days, and I’ve really appreciated the stream of encouraging emails from loyal readers. These emails have kept me going through some very long days and nights, and for that, you have my heartfelt thanks.

What now?

I would be a fool to tell you that the site is 100% secure, because that’s simply not possible in this day and age. If a kid can hack the Pentagon, and banks and large companies are hacked on a daily basis (even if they try to hide it), then nothing is completely safe. What I can do is tell you what I’m doing to make sure you’re as safe as possible…

The things I have always done to make sure you’re safe on my website:

No financial details (past or current) pass through or are stored on my website. I can’t even access your financial details. All orders and payments are processed on secure servers run by two very well known companies, who understand website security far better than I ever could:

e-Junkie (aka FatFreeCartPro) handles my shopping cart. When you press an Add to Cart button, this is what you should see (desktop then mobile):

If you choose to pay by credit/debit card, the card details are collected on eJunkie’s secure servers before being securely handed over to PayPal for card processing.

If you choose to pay by PayPal, you’re redirected to PayPal’s secure servers.

All software is kept up to date, as updates often include fixes for vulnerabilities that have been discovered.

All admin/server passwords are long complex passwords and are changed frequently.

A number of security plug-ins/services monitor the website, scan it regularly, and watch for any unusual activity.

Further changes I’m making to keep you safe on my website:

Your safety is my top priority, so I’m making some additional improvements:

Although no financial/confidential information passes through my websites, both this Lightroom Queen website and Lightroom Forums have moved to SSL connections, as of now. You’ll recognize the http:// has changed to https:// and the lock icon appears in the address bar.

I have upgraded my Sucuri monitoring, to more quickly pick up and defuse any possible threats. Sucuri are industry leaders in website security.

I am reviewing all of my personal cyber security procedures and processes, for both home and work.

Making all of these changes in one go does mean you might find a few bugs over the next few weeks, but this is a worthwhile compromise. I’m working on finding and fixing any bugs, but if you spot anything that doesn’t look quite right, please just let me know.

What you can do to stay safe online

It’s scary to see all of the different ways that hackers can break into websites, and the website itself isn’t the only link in the chain. Most of us are aware of viruses and malware that can be installed on our personal computers. Hackers can also break into our home routers or take advantage of any unsecured connections we may use when we’re away from home, among other things. There are things we can do to help to protect ourselves.

The most obvious improvement is to ensure that we never use the same passwords on multiple sites. If one website gets hacked, which is inevitable in this day and age, then the hackers would have access to the other websites you visit. You don’t have to remember all these different passwords. There are some fantastic password managers available, some of which are free, and they’re safer than post-it notes covering your computer.

For more information on other things you can do to protect yourself online, visit the StaySafeOnline website.

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http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237344416/0/lightroomqueen~Hacked-are-you-safe/feed/1618090https://www.lightroomqueen.com/what-is-a-lightroom-catalog/What is a Lightroom catalog?http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146392/0/lightroomqueen~What-is-a-Lightroom-catalog/
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146392/0/lightroomqueen~What-is-a-Lightroom-catalog/#respondMon, 28 Nov 2016 16:00:00 +0000https://www.lightroomqueen.com/?p=18047There are basically two different types of image management software – databases (catalogs) and file browsers. So what’s the difference? Let’s compare to a physical library of books to illustrate. A file browser looks at the files directly on the hard drive and organizes photos by folder. This is like walking straight into the library and… Click to continue

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There are basically two different types of image management software – databases (catalogs) and file browsers. So what’s the difference? Let’s compare to a physical library of books to illustrate.

A file browser looks at the files directly on the hard drive and organizes photos by folder. This is like walking straight into the library and looking round the shelves of books organized by topic. If someone’s borrowed a book, you won’t even know it exists.

A database is a series of text records. This is like the library’s catalog of books. In the old days, it was made up of drawers full of cards, but these days it’s all computerized. Each card – or computerized record – contains information about the book, who wrote it, a description, its ISBN number, perhaps a picture of the cover, and most importantly, which shelf the book is stored on. The books themselves are still on the shelves. They’re not IN the catalog. If someone’s borrowed a book so it’s no longer on the shelf, you can still see the information describing the book, but you can’t read the book until it’s returned to its shelf. If someone moves the book to a new shelf, the information on the card is incorrect and you’ll be looking in the wrong place until the record is updated.

Lightroom’s catalog works in the same way. Photos are never IN the catalog. The Lightroom catalog contains text records of information describing the photos, with small previews stored nearby, and most importantly, a note of where each photo is stored on the hard drive. If the hard drive is disconnected or a photo is moved to a new location, you can still see the information describing the photo and a small preview in the catalog, but you can’t work with the photo until the original file is found.

Why does understanding the catalog matter?

We’re very familiar with working in file browsers. Windows Explorer and Mac Finder are used on every single Windows and Mac computer, so handling files in a browser comes naturally to most computer users.

Catalogs are different. If you move, rename or delete a file outside of Lightroom, the records in the catalog won’t get updated to match. Lightroom will still be looking in the old location on the hard drive for the file, and won’t be able to find it. When this happens, you’ll be left with exclamation marks on the photos, and you won’t be able to edit or export the photos (just like you can’t read a library book until you find the book itself).

As well as the information about the original image files, the catalog contains all of the work you’ve done to the photos. This includes flags, stars, keywords, captions, stars, flags, collection membership, and more. Even your Develop edits are stored as a series of text instructions in the catalog itself. While it is possible to store some of this metadata with the files (in a format called XMP), by default it’s only stored in the catalog. If you remove the photos from the catalog, all of your Lightroom edits will be gone. Even if you reimport the photos later, you won’t get this information back.

What do you need to remember?

Always rename photos within Lightroom, using the Photo menu > Rename command. If you don’t, you have to fix the links one at a time. BIG job!

Move photos within Lightroom by dragging and dropping them on another folder – or if you move them using Explorer/Finder/other software, update Lightroom’s records immediately, before you forget where you put them.

Don’t remove photos from the catalog unless you’re also intentionally deleting the original photos (e.g. the fuzzy ones).

My books are only discounted once (or occasionally twice) a year, so if you’ve been debating purchasing, now’s the time.

Already own a copy? I bet your photographer friends would love a copy as a gift!

Stuck?

Go to the LRCC/6 Book page and decide whether you want the eBooks only, or the paperback too.

Click the applicable Add to Cart button.

Enter the applicable code in the Shopping Cart and press Update Cart to check that the discount is being applied, shown using the red arrows.

Check out using the secure server.

The codes are live now, and you have until the end of Cyber Monday.*

The Small Print
* The BF2016E30 and BF2016P10 codes are only valid for the Lightroom CC/6 book purchased directly from the Lightroom Queen website between now and 23:59 PST on Monday 28 November 2016. Discount code must be entered at the time of purchasing as it cannot be refunded later. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.

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http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146396/0/lightroomqueen~Black-Friday-Sale/feed/018024https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-catalogs-top-10-misunderstandings/Lightroom Catalogs – Top 10 Misunderstandingshttp://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146398/0/lightroomqueen~Lightroom-Catalogs-Top-Misunderstandings/
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146398/0/lightroomqueen~Lightroom-Catalogs-Top-Misunderstandings/#commentsMon, 21 Nov 2016 16:00:53 +0000https://www.lightroomqueen.com/?p=17983Lightroom has two primary functions – organizing your photos and editing them. Although its organizational tools are powerful, they’re also the most misunderstood, so over the forthcoming weeks, we’ll discuss the best practices for using catalogs, folders, collections and keywords, and then we’ll discuss how to tidy up your existing catalog, if you wish to… Click to continue

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Lightroom has two primary functions – organizing your photos and editing them. Although its organizational tools are powerful, they’re also the most misunderstood, so over the forthcoming weeks, we’ll discuss the best practices for using catalogs, folders, collections and keywords, and then we’ll discuss how to tidy up your existing catalog, if you wish to do so. First, however, let’s talk about some of the most common catalog-related misunderstandings.

#1 – Your photos are not “in” Lightroom

When you import photos into Lightroom, they’re not really “in” Lightroom. The metadata describing the photos is added to a database (called the catalog) as text records, along with a link to that file on the hard drive. Small JPEG previews are also stored next to the catalog, so you can view the photos when the original files are offline.

Imagine an index of the books in a library. The library catalog tells you a little about the book and which shelf it’s stored on, and maybe even gives you a preview of the cover, but it doesn’t contain the book itself. The Lightroom catalog works in the same way.

We’ll come back to the catalog concept in more detail next week, but for now, remember one thing: don’t delete your original photos thinking that they’re safely stored in Lightroom. They’re not.

#2 – Your photos are not hidden away by Lightroom

The photos are not stored in some magical location, hidden away from your view. They’re just normal image files stored in folders on your hard drive. You choose where they’re stored when you import them. This means you’re not locked into just using Lightroom, but it also means YOU are responsible for looking after the photos. If you move, rename or delete photos outside of Lightroom, you’ll create a mess.

#3 – Your photos are not “in the cloud” either

Even if you have a Creative Cloud subscription, and you’ve set all of your photos to sync, Lightroom only syncs low resolution previews to the cloud. The original photos are still stored on your computer, and you still need to back them up. You’re still responsible.

#4 – Lightroom’s Catalog Backup does not back up your photos

When you quit Lightroom, it’s probably asked you to back up, and you may have hit ok without reading the rest of the dialog. In doing so, you’d have missed a very important warning: Lightroom’s catalog backup only backs up the catalog. It does not back up your photos.

You need a solid backup system, and ideally something that’s automated. Copying and pasting files onto another drive when you happen to remember does not constitute a reliable backup system. Neither does RAID. And if you’ve ever tried restoring from backups created using the “Make a Second Copy” option in the Import dialog, you’ll have the grey hairs to prove it.

There’s a multitude of backup software available free of charge. One easy option is Crashplan. Their software allows you to back up to another hard drive free of charge, and if you have a fast internet connection, their online backup is also inexpensive. For the more technically minded user, Vice Versa (Windows) and Chronosync (Mac) allow even more control over your local backups.

#5 – You still need Lightroom’s catalog backup even if you run your own backups

Even if you have your own backup system, you may still need to run Lightroom’s own catalog backups too. Why? There are two main reasons:

1. Many backup systems overwrite the previous backup with the latest one. If your catalog becomes corrupted (relatively rare) or you make a mistake that you don’t spot immediately (incredibly common!), your normal backup system will overwrite your last “good” backup with the corrupted/incorrect catalog. Lightroom’s catalog backup, on the other hand, is versioned, which means that it keeps each of the backups, so you can go back to an earlier version at any time.

2. Backup systems that create versioned backups, for example, Time Machine, may run at a time while Lightroom is open. As a result, the backup can be corrupted. Lightroom’s catalog backup, however, runs when Lightroom quits.

If in doubt, let your backup system back up Lightroom’s own catalog backups.

#6 – Keep the photos in Lightroom even when you’ve finished editing them

If you remove photos from Lightroom when you’ve finished editing them, or only add specific photos in the first place, you’re kind of missing the point of Lightroom. It’s designed to help you search and work with ALL of your photos now and in the future, and it can’t do that if you’ve removed them from the catalog.

Some people remove finished photos because they’re concerned that their catalog will get too big. The largest known catalog is 4.2 MILLION photos, and yes, that’s getting a bit big to handle. But most Lightroom users don’t have 4.2 million photos.

While we’re on the subject, let’s state the obvious. Don’t delete your original photos from the hard drive when you’ve finished editing them. That would be like throwing away the film negatives when you’ve made a print, or throwing away the recipe when you’ve finished making a cake.

Unless you’re completely deleting the photos from your archives, add them all to your Lightroom catalog and leave them there.

If your photos are already on the hard drive, you don’t have to duplicate them when adding them to your Lightroom catalog. In the Import dialog, you can select Add to leave them in their current location, or Move if you want to rearrange them into a new folder structure.

Once the photos are added to your Lightroom catalog, you still have plenty of options. You can move all of the photos to another hard drive if you start to run out of space, or you can split them over multiple hard drives. Archive hard drives can be disconnected. Even if you split over multiple hard drives, Lightroom can manage all of this in a single catalog, and I’ll explain how in more detail in a few weeks time.

#8 – Sometimes moving photos in Lightroom can be a bad idea

You’ll often hear Lightroom experts (including me) tell you only to rename, move or delete photos inside of Lightroom, because otherwise you’ll break the links. There is one exception. If you’re moving entire folders containing large amounts of data, for example, you’re archiving old photos off to another hard drive, it’s actually quicker and safer to move them in Explorer/Finder and then immediately update Lightroom’s links.

#9 – You don’t have to “Save” when you’ve finished editing

In most conventional photo editors, you must save the changes to each file when you finish editing. Lightroom is different. The database is automatically updated whenever you move a slider or update the metadata. You don’t have to do a thing.

There is a Save Metadata to Files command in the Metadata menu, but this isn’t a conventional save either. It writes the metadata to the header of the file (or a sidecar XMP file for proprietary raw files). We’ll come back to the pros and cons in a future post, but if you want a head start, see pages 343-346 in my LRCC/6 book). Saving the metadata to the files doesn’t touch the image data, so your Lightroom Develop changes still won’t show up in other photo editors. To do that, you have to export the photos, which is like a Save As.

#10 – You don’t have to keep your exported photos

To see your Lightroom edits in other software, or send your edited photo to someone else, you must export the photos out of Lightroom as a JPEG, TIFF or PSD file. This creates a copy of the image with your Develop settings applied, so the original isn’t touched in the process.

You don’t need to keep these copies once they’ve served their purpose. Why not? Because as long as you have the original photos and the records in the catalog, you can export another identical copy when you need it, in exactly the size and format you need.

In the next post in the series, we’ll discuss the concept of a catalog and how it relates to your photos in more detail.

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http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146398/0/lightroomqueen~Lightroom-Catalogs-Top-Misunderstandings/feed/1717983https://www.lightroomqueen.com/future-cloud-based-photo-editor-nimbus/A Sneak Peek at Project Nimbus, Adobe’s Future Cloud-Native Photo Editorhttp://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146402/0/lightroomqueen~A-Sneak-Peek-at-Project-Nimbus-Adobes-Future-CloudNative-Photo-Editor/
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146402/0/lightroomqueen~A-Sneak-Peek-at-Project-Nimbus-Adobes-Future-CloudNative-Photo-Editor/#commentsFri, 04 Nov 2016 15:35:48 +0000https://www.lightroomqueen.com/?p=17953At the Adobe Max conference, Adobe showcases their newest features and shares a brief glimpse into some of the projects they’re working on. In a keynote address on Wednesday, Bryan O’Neill Hughes showed off one such project… a new photography app, code-named Project Nimbus. Introducing the app, Bryan said “We’re building on the success of Lightroom, to deliver a complete cloud-native… Click to continue

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At the Adobe Max conference, Adobe showcases their newest features and shares a brief glimpse into some of the projects they’re working on. In a keynote address on Wednesday, Bryan O’Neill Hughes showed off one such project… a new photography app, code-named Project Nimbus.

Introducing the app, Bryan said “We’re building on the success of Lightroom, to deliver a complete cloud-native photography service that is available across desktop, web and mobile, for full resolution raw editing and sharing.”

Adobe said their aims were for the new app to be:

Cloud-native – not just your files stored in the cloud, but your edits too, so they’re available wherever you are.

Non-destructive – edits that can always be reverted, regardless of which device you’re using, utilizing the power of the Camera Raw engine.

Focus on experience – putting the common tasks front and center for simplicity, yet revealing much more power when you need it.

Opening Nimbus, he went on to demo some of the features it has so far. Does the interface look familiar? They’re taking the lessons learned from Lightroom mobile and web and integrating them into a desktop app that’s easy to use, so whichever device you pick up, everything feels familiar.

Next, he showed the content-aware search facilities, searching for words such as pier, windmill and hallway. You may recognize this image analysis functionality, as it’s already available as a Technology Preview in Lightroom Web. If you’ve never managed to keyword all of your photos (nor have I!), this feature will make it quick and easy to find specific photos.

He briefly showed the Edit mode, which looks very much like Lightroom’s Develop module, but with a more modern look.

He also showed how easily Nimbus integrates with the existing Lightroom mobile apps and Lightroom Web, with changes being available immediately on all of your devices, saying “Everything I do in one place is available in other places”.

Want to see it in action for yourself? The Keynote recordings are available here. The one that mentions Nimbus is called “The Future of Creativity and Design – Photography” and if you’re in a hurry, skip to about 12 minutes into the recording.

It’s very early days, and the app doesn’t even have a proper name yet. A public beta is expected sometime next year.

At this early stage, it looks like it’ll be perfect for photographers who want to edit their photos with pro-grade editing tools, but without the hassle of file management. We’ll wait and see how it continues to grow. I promise to bring you more details as soon as they’re made public.

One final thought… if you’re a Lightroom user with limited internet access or a dislike of cloud services, don’t worry… this is just a preview of a tool for the future. Lightroom development is carrying on as normal.

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http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146402/0/lightroomqueen~A-Sneak-Peek-at-Project-Nimbus-Adobes-Future-CloudNative-Photo-Editor/feed/117953https://www.lightroomqueen.com/send-bug-report-feature-request-adobe/How do I send a bug report or feature request to Adobe?http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146406/0/lightroomqueen~How-do-I-send-a-bug-report-or-feature-request-to-Adobe/
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146406/0/lightroomqueen~How-do-I-send-a-bug-report-or-feature-request-to-Adobe/#commentsMon, 31 Oct 2016 16:00:03 +0000https://www.lightroomqueen.com/?p=17930As carefully as Adobe and prerelease testers check each release, Lightroom is now an incredibly complex program and it’s inevitable that bugs will slip through the net. As a result, you’ve likely already found bugs in Lightroom – but who do you tell? How can you be sure it’s really a bug? And why don’t they… Click to continue

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As carefully as Adobe and prerelease testers check each release, Lightroom is now an incredibly complex program and it’s inevitable that bugs will slip through the net. As a result, you’ve likely already found bugs in Lightroom – but who do you tell? How can you be sure it’s really a bug? And why don’t they all get fixed?

The Feedback Forum

Most software companies offer a bug report form that’s akin to a black hole. You submit the bug report and that’s the last you hear of it. You have no idea whether anyone else is suffering the same issue, whether there’s a workaround, or whether it’s been fixed.

Adobe has taken a different course with the Photoshop family of products, which includes Lightroom and Lightroom mobile. Some years ago, the Digital Imaging team introduced the Feedback Forum.

At first glance, it looks like yet another Lightroom forum, but this one’s different:

It’s a direct line to the engineering teams. Although Adobe staff can’t reply to every single thread, they do read everything, and often you’ll see the engineers personally replying to threads.

If Adobe can’t replicate the issue, they can communicate with you to get additional information. You’ll note some users have additional titles:

Official Rep, Principle Computer Scientist, Employee and other similar titles are Adobe staff, whether they work in the support, development or quality engineering departments.

Champions are volunteers who have been recognized by Adobe as being helpful forum members with excellent product knowledge. They assist staff in testing reported bugs and requesting additional information necessary to reproduce issues.

When lots of users are reporting the same issue, spotting the commonalities can be the key to tracking down the cause of the problem.

Because it’s public, you can check to see whether someone else has already reported the bug you think you’ve found – and often there are workarounds posted in the same thread.

The forum software allows users to report bugs and request new features – but more importantly, it also allows users to vote on the bugs/features are that most important to them. Does this actually matter? Yes. For example, it was your feedback on the updated Import dialog in 6.2 that reversed Adobe’s decision. Some of the most popular feature requests, such as face recognition and HDR/Panorama merge were also implemented by popular demand. Your votes do count.

How do I report a bug or request a feature?

Click Photoshop Family and sign in with your Adobe ID (or you can use a Facebook or Google ID if you prefer).

In the Find or Start a Conversation field, type a few words that describe your problem (as you would in a Google search, for example “Lightroom GPS Data”) and hit Enter.

The forum searches existing reports and shows you threads that may be the same issue.

If your issue matches one of the search results, read the thread to look for workarounds, click the Me Too button to vote for the issue, and add any additional comments using the reply field. You’ll automatically be subscribed to threads you’ve created or commented on. This email subscription can be controlled using the Follow/Unfollow button in the top right corner.

If your issue isn’t shown in the search results, click the Continue Creating Conversation button at the bottom of the page.

Update the Title to a short phrase that describes your issue, such as “Lightroom: GPS data format is inaccurate”.

Select the Conversation Type – “Problem” for a bug report, or “Idea” for a feature request. (Don’t worry if Adobe later changes this. Something you call a bug might be considered an enhancement or feature request if it’s working the way they originally designed it, but this is just a technicality.)

In the Description field, write a longer description of the problem you’re having, and don’t forget to include your system specs. We’ll come back to tips on writing great bug reports and feature requests in a moment.

In the Related Categories section, check either Lightroom for mobile or Photoshop Lightroom. This ensures that the report is seen by the right team.

At the top, select Preview to check the information before posting.

Finally, click Post.

How do I write a great bug report?

The more specific the information you provide in a bug report, the better the chances of the engineers being able to reproduce and fix your bug, so here’s a quick checklist.

Do a search to see if your idea has already been submitted and add your vote/comments to existing topics before creating a new one.

Pick a descriptive title (e.g., “Lightroom CC 2015.7: Badge numbers in Grid view not visible on Sierra” is much better than “Really bad Lightroom bug!!!!”).

Create a separate thread for each bug instead of a single laundry list thread, otherwise your bug may get lost.

Follow a standard bug report checklist:

Description – write a brief description of the problem you’re seeing.

Steps to Reproduce – list the exact steps to reproduce the issue. If Adobe can’t reproduce it, it probably won’t get fixed.

Expected Result – write a brief description of what you expected to happen.

Actual Result – write a brief description of the incorrect result you’re seeing.

Workarounds – note any workarounds you’ve discovered, just in case anyone else is having the same problem.

System Specs – list your system specs including the exact Lightroom version, your operating system version and any other information that might be related, such as your graphics card and driver version. The easiest way to do this is to go to Help menu > System Info in Lightroom and copy/paste the contents.

Screenshots – if you can illustrate the problem with screenshots, that often makes it much easier to reproduce.

How do I write a great feature request?

There are some tricks that add weight to your feature request:

Do a search to see if your idea has already been submitted and add your vote/comments to existing topics before creating a new one.

Pick a descriptive title (e.g., “Lightroom: Mark a photo as final version” is much better than “My great Lightroom idea”).

Create separate threads for each request instead of a single laundry list thread, otherwise people can’t vote on your idea.

Imagine you’re trying to sell your idea to the team, so make the description clear and concise.

Describe WHY you want the feature you’re requesting – the problem you’re currently hitting, and how this new feature would solve that problem. The team need to understand how your idea fits in, as they may come up with an even better way of solving your problem.

Don’t be offended if someone suggests a workaround or plug-in to solve your problem, at least temporarily, or if someone asks additional questions to fully understand your request.

Why hasn’t my bug been fixed?

It can be discouraging if your bug doesn’t get fixed, or your feature request doesn’t get implemented.

Does this mean that Adobe isn’t listening? No. All of the suggestions and reports are weighed up, and as with everything in life, they have to be prioritized. One thing I’ve learned through many years of beta testing is that bugs and feature requests are rarely as simple as they sound to us as users. Fixing that “tiny irritating bug” may create another 10 much more serious bugs, and that “easy feature request” can have far reaching effects.

So should we give up reporting bugs and requesting new features? No. A huge number of bugs do get fixed in every release and new features are also being added. Your feedback does count.

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http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146406/0/lightroomqueen~How-do-I-send-a-bug-report-or-feature-request-to-Adobe/feed/217930https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-performance-whats-slow/Lightroom Performance – What’s Slow?http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146408/0/lightroomqueen~Lightroom-Performance-Whats-Slow/
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146408/0/lightroomqueen~Lightroom-Performance-Whats-Slow/#commentsMon, 24 Oct 2016 15:00:52 +0000https://www.lightroomqueen.com/?p=17167Over the past 8 weeks, we’ve learned the pros and cons of non-destructive editing, how different computer components affect different areas of the program, and the ways you can adjust your Lightroom workflow to get the best performance. In the first post, we said simply saying “Lightroom is slow” doesn’t help, because different areas of… Click to continue

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Over the past 8 weeks, we’ve learned the pros and cons of non-destructive editing, how different computer components affect different areas of the program, and the ways you can adjust your Lightroom workflow to get the best performance.

In the first post, we said simply saying “Lightroom is slow” doesn’t help, because different areas of the program benefit from different optimizations. In this final post, we’ll summarize the main places to look for improvement, based on what specifically is slow.

Loading Lightroom

Loading the Lightroom program is primarily dependent on your drive speeds, for both the OS/program files and also for the catalog. If you’re finding it slow to load, replacing your spinning drive with an SSD can help, and is a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

Load time is also affected by the size of the catalog, however I wouldn’t recommend breaking the catalog up into smaller catalogs to solve this, as this causes more problems than it solves for most people.

Importing Photos

Importing photos is also primarily limited by file transfer rates. This includes the speed of the source – whether that’s a camera cable, card reader or hard drive – and the speed of the destination drive(s).

For the source, card readers are usually more reliable than direct camera connections, and faster USB card readers (e.g. USB 3) are available to help improve the import speed.

For the destination, there are potentially two drives in play: the main Destination folder and also the Second Copy location. If these are on external drives, the connection speed (USB2 vs USB3, etc.) is usually the main issue. Many photographers send their second copies to a NAS, which can reduce the speed further.

If you choose to add the photos at their current location, this is a lot quicker than moving/copying the files, however take care that the photos are on a hard drive, not a memory card.

Finally, the additional work you ask Lightroom to do immediately after import can prolong the import time, especially conversion to DNG format or building previews.

Building Previews

The time it takes to build previews is largely dependent on your computer’s processing power, but also the drive speed for the catalog and original images.

Improving preview build times frequently requires a newer CPU, so it’s not an easy fix. If you’re running low on RAM and having to use temp files, this may slow you down further, so it’s worth keeping an eye on Resource Monitor (Windows) / Activity Monitor (Mac) to see which computer components are reaching their limits.

The simplest solution for building previews is simply to let them build overnight, or at another time when you don’t need the computer. Also, you only need to build the previews you actually use, so if you never zoom in the Library module, there’s no need to build 1:1 previews.

Viewing In Library

You can speed up viewing in the Library module by building the right size previews in advance. If you need to zoom in, you’ll need 1:1 previews. Otherwise, standard sized previews (set to Auto in Catalog Settings) will be plenty. If you’ve made Develop edits since building the previews, don’t forget to rebuild them, otherwise they’ll have to update when you select the photo.

Once the previews are built, the drive speed for the catalog/previews is next in line. Putting the catalog/previews on an SSD can make Library browsing smoother.

Applying Metadata

Applying metadata is mainly limited by the speed of the drive containing the catalog, so again, putting the catalog/previews on an SSD makes a notable difference.

It also helps to minimize the amount of work Lightroom has to do, especially closing the Collections, Metadata and Keyword panels if you’re not using them.

Don’t forget to optimize the catalog regularly, as this saves Lightroom skipping around the catalog to find the information it needs.

Moving/deleting photos

Moving or deleting photos is also affected by drive speeds – both for the original images as they’re moved, and also the catalog as the image records are updated.

Lightroom also has to redraw the grid view as photos disappear, so switching to a different folder or collection (e.g. Quick Collection) can speed it up slightly.

Finally, rather than trying to delete one photo at a time, consider marking them as rejects and then deleting the rejects when you’ve finished sorting through the photos.

Loading in Develop

Moving over to the Develop module, let’s talk about loading speed. This is primarily dependent on any data that is already cached, then on a mix of processing power (CPU/GPU), screen resolution, drive speeds, and of course, the size and complexity of the image files too.

If you’re moving through photos sequentially (and not too quickly!) in the Develop module in CC 2015.6 / 6.6 or later, Lightroom automatically caches the photos either side in the background to improve loading speed. Once the image data is loaded from the cache (held in RAM), the CPU/GPU is responsible for additional image processing. In this scenario, buying a computer with a faster CPU is your main upgrade potential.

If you’re not moving sequentially, additional factors come into play. The full resolution image data has to be read from the hard drive, so hard drive speed is a major factor. Once the image data is read from hard drive, then initial processing has to be applied, which is dependent on the CPU or GPU processing power.

If you’re using a standard HD resolution monitor (e.g. 1920×1080), it’s worth leaving the GPU disabled in Preferences > Performance, as this increases image loading time without a noticeable benefit, but the smoother interactive performance makes it worth enabling on 4K/5K screens.

The higher the resolution of the image, the more data there is to process, so 50MP images will naturally take longer than 5MP. Some sensors (I’m looking at you, Fuji!) also require more complex calculations.

Whether you’re moving sequentially or skipping around, building Smart Previews in advance and then checking the Preferences > Performance > Use Smart Previews instead of Originals for Image Editing checkbox (in 2015.7 / 6.7 or later) or taking the original photos offline (in 2015.6 / 6.6 or earlier) is the greatest potential improvement, simply because there’s less data to read and process. If you’re struggling for loading times in Develop, this is your first place to start.

Editing in Develop

Once the photo is loaded into the Develop module, as long as you have enough RAM, then you’re primarily limited by your processing power – the CPU or GPU, depending on your screen resolution.

If you’re using a 4K/5K monitor, it’s worth enabling the GPU for smoother interactive performance, but on standard HD resolution monitors (e.g. 1920×1080), you’re better to leave it disabled and let the CPU do the image processing.

The more image data to process, the longer it takes, so you can reduce the preview size to limit the number of pixels Lightroom has to crunch. You can do this by resizing the Lightroom window, enlarging the panels or selecting a smaller zoom ratio (e.g. 1:4).

We also learned that the slider order can make a slight performance difference. Some tasks are more processor intensive than others, so using a pixel editor such as Photoshop for more complex local adjustments can be a good choice. Temporarily disabling complex calculations such as Lens Corrections can also help with interactive performance.

And finally, like the Develop Loading time, utilizing Smart Previews has the biggest potential gains.

Exporting

Like building previews and working in the Develop module, exporting photos is largely limited by the CPU, where multiple cores can help, and also the speed of the hard drive containing your original photos and the export destination.

Syncing to Lightroom Cloud

Finally, sync speed is largely dependent on the speed of your internet connection, especially the upload speed, which is often around 1/10 of the download speed.

That’s it for our performance series! For the full index of posts, see the first post. A free printable eBook will be available soon, so sign up for the newsletter if you’d like to be notified of its release.

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http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146408/0/lightroomqueen~Lightroom-Performance-Whats-Slow/feed/1817167https://www.lightroomqueen.com/lightroom-performance-workflow-tweaks/Lightroom Performance – Workflow Tweakshttp://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146412/0/lightroomqueen~Lightroom-Performance-Workflow-Tweaks/
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/237146412/0/lightroomqueen~Lightroom-Performance-Workflow-Tweaks/#commentsMon, 17 Oct 2016 15:00:26 +0000https://www.lightroomqueen.com/?p=17163Besides optimizing your computer and Lightroom settings, you can also save yourself a lot of frustration by thinking ahead and allowing your computer to do many of its processor-intensive activities at a time when you’re not using the computer. Build previews overnight In the previous post, we learned about the different kinds of previews… Click to continue

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Besides optimizing your computer and Lightroom settings, you can also save yourself a lot of frustration by thinking ahead and allowing your computer to do many of its processor-intensive activities at a time when you’re not using the computer.

Build previews overnight

In the previous post, we learned about the different kinds of previews and caches that can be used to speed up Lightroom. You’re going to need rendered previews, but you don’t have to sit there waiting for them! Decide which size rendered previews you’ll need, then set the standard sized or 1:1 previews building overnight, or at least while you go and make a drink. The same goes for smart previews, if you want to use them to speed up the Develop module. While Lightroom’s rendering previews, it’s using a lot of the computer’s processing power, so you’re better off doing something else while it works.

Apply presets before rendering previews

While we’re on the subject of previews, think about Develop settings you apply to all or most of your photos. There’s no point rendering the standard or 1:1 previews and THEN applying a preset, because the previews will need to be updated again. Apply your presets or sync your most-frequently used settings first, and then build your previews to save wasted effort.

Pause background tasks

Lightroom runs a series of background tasks, including Sync, Face Recognition and Reverse Geocoding. These use additional processing power, especially for Sync and Face Recognition, so if you’re struggling for speed, it can be useful to pause these tasks while you’re working in Lightroom. To do so, click on the Identity Plate in the top left corner and press the Pause buttons in the Activity Center. Don’t forget to start them again when you’ve finished.

Use optimum slider order

In the Develop module, regardless of the order in which you move the sliders, the end result is always the same (with the exception of spot healing which can be affected slightly by lens corrections and also by overlapping spots). There is, however, a slight performance advantage to using the tools in the following order:

Tonal Adjustments (e.g. Basic panel, etc.) can be done at any stage, but are often done first

Spot Healing

Lens Corrections (Profile, Manual Transform sliders, Upright, etc.)

Local Corrections (Adjustment Brush, Graduated Filter, Radial Filter)

Detail Corrections (Noise Reduction, Sharpening)

If you apply some of these settings (e.g. the lens profile or noise reduction) on import using a preset or default settings, but you’re struggling for speed, you can temporarily disable the panel using the panel switch on the left, and then reenable it when you’re finished.

Clear history

If the History panel becomes extremely long, particularly with local brush adjustments or spot healing, it can slow down Lightroom’s performance. It also inflates the size of the catalog considerably. You can clear the History for individual photos by clicking the X button on the panel, or you can clear the History for a large number of photos by selecting them and navigating to Develop menu > Clear History.

Clearing the History does not remove your current settings. It only clears the list of the slider movements/adjustments you made to get to the current state. Even if you clear the History, your current settings remain, and if you want to change them, you simply move the sliders.

Use pixel editor for intensive local edits

In the first post of this series, we learned the difference between non-destructive parametric editing (Lightroom) and pixel based editing (Photoshop). Extensive local adjustments, such as detailed adjustment brush masks or large/numerous spot heals, are better suited to Photoshop. While it may be possible to do them in Lightroom, they won’t be fast. It’s also worth noting that the Auto Mask setting in the adjustment brush has a significant impact on performance too.

Close extra panels

If you’re really struggling for speed, you can also help by minimizing the work Lightroom has to do.

This includes closing panels such as the Histogram panel, the Navigator panel, the Develop Detail panel 1:1 preview, the Keywording & Keyword List panels, the Metadata panel and the Filmstrip. Closing the Collections panel and then restarting Lightroom also saves having to count the smart collection contents, which can slow down metadata entry on large catalogs.

When you’re moving photos to a new folder, start the move and then switch to an empty folder or collection, such as the Quick Collection, so that Lightroom’s not having to constantly redraw the Grid view while it’s working. You can also turn off the thumbnail badges in View menu > View Options.

Leave exports for when not using computer

Finally, leave large exports for times when you’re not using the computer. It’s a processor-intensive task that can slow down the fastest of computers, due to the complex calculations involved.

Next week, the final post in this series… a summary of where to look when you’re suffering speed issues in specific areas of the program.